


Of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

by fortunecookie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Drarry, Healing, M/M, Roman Catholicism, Russian Translation Available, creepy church, hints of PSTD, love in the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-23
Updated: 2014-03-23
Packaged: 2018-01-16 18:12:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1357120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortunecookie/pseuds/fortunecookie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The three times Draco was moved to prayer in his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

FATHER

 

The first time Draco enters a church he is very tired.

The war is over, and he’s far from home. This is just to rest, a Muggle place to retreat from the wizarding eye. He grimaces when he realizes, looking into the baptismal pool, that he looks like he’s afflicted by the Rapid Aging spell. None of the Muggles give him a second glance, and Draco realizes that there are other men kneeling, eyes closed in prayer, are clasping hands that shake - like his.

Draco is no different. He looks up into the decrepit cross, the restored stained glass windows, and murmurs his old mother’s hymn. Narcissa sang this when she combed his white-gold hair every morning - before Hogwarts, before the Dark Lord. The hymn may or not have been a prayer. He was never taught Muggle things. But he’s starting to think that Narcissa knew more than she let on.

Whatever the hymn is, he does not say one for his father. He does not believe in fathers.

 

SON

 

The second time Draco encounters a church is when Narcissa dies. This time it’s a wizarding church, with a graveyard the size of Paris. (He would know, he went once, on an exchange trip.) He visits her grave over and over again, teeth chattering in the cold, and he sees her hawthorne layered bangs in women on the street in Diagon Alley (when he isn’t being a recluse). He sees her in letters, in fireworks, in the Quidditch World Cups (it may have been his father who accompanied him, but he now knows who it was who bought the tickets). Draco sees her in dragons, in woods, in dungeons.

Maybe that’s why he starts learning about the Holy Ghost, this Catholicism. Religion strikes him as scarily close to seances and far-gone Squibs. Malfoys were always fond of bribing wizards in the church - the gold cups were splendid. He pours over rites of Eucharist and faded parchment in the Vatican's catacombs. He learns he’s a descendent of a long line of spiritual fakes, swindlers, and generally immoral men. Rasputin is one of his decorated ancestors. He reads up on the Russian Revolutions and sighs.

He is not surprised. However, the new knowledge comforts him, because he knows now that any inkling of good in him must have come from his mother. (He sees Narcissa in him, too.)

He visits St. Peter’s Basilica and lights a candle for her. He says a small Hail Mary as well. Draco figures it can’t hurt. He is trying to be a good son.

 

HOLY SPIRIT

 

The third time Draco enters a church, he is with Harry. He has no idea how they end up here, somber and still dressed. They’re dating. Fucking, more accurately. They don’t talk about some things, like why Draco’s hands shake when he hears his father’s name or why Harry can’t mention the Weasleys without choking. He broke up with Ginny years ago, something cliche about “not being gay” expectations and “(beard) girlfriends”. The sex is good. Harry sometimes thinks he died and went to heaven when he wakes up to find a complacent, calm, and utterly sexy, handsome young man in his arms, one how doesn’t scream at him to get checked for post-traumatic stress disorder or the after-effects of a Crucio curse.

Draco, for his part, deals with his shit by shrugging, and introduces Harry to Guns N Roses and Imagine Dragons and rap hymnal mashups. Harry laughs; he didn’t expect Draco to be into Muggle music (Draco doesn’t tell Harry that listening to all those magic references in wizarding music sickens him). They cuddle. They watch "When the Price is Right".

The sex is good but it’s not why either of them stay. After a while they figure that they fit in ways other than their body. Harry puts up with Draco’s magic OCD, and his obsessive charming. Draco makes Harry dark coffee with five spoonfuls of sugar every Monday, and remembers to close the doors. It’s the little rules that add up. They give and take, like a chorus with a response, and the yin-yang pull of it all is exciting. Draco may or may not worship Harry a little.

The blonde drops a few galleons in the donation box. He brushes his fingers against the glowing blue veil Mama Mary has on, just for good luck.

Harry glances at him and smiles. He kneels.

[The proposal is a little stiff but it works.]

 

AMEN

**Author's Note:**

> No offense meant towards Catholicism! I'm a Roman Catholic myself. 
> 
> Thank God for J.K. Rowling and all she's done for teen lit.
> 
> \---
> 
> UPDATE 25 March, 2015
> 
> AO3 user notprotectme was kind enough to translate this to Russian! Read the translation here: http://ficbook.net/readfic/2910812.


End file.
